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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Quality Fish Makes For Bragging Rights Contender

You can't make the days any prettier! Sunshine, slight breeze, mild temperatures and a game plan for fishing! I met Olin Williams up at the Dee Dee Bartels Park and boat ramp for a "birthday" fishing trip. The tide was still going out and I had a "plan" to hit different spots as it continued to drop and then come back in. First, we made a run over to Lanceford Creek with an hour to go in the tide and set up from a dock within casting distance of our jigs and live shrimp. Olin was making excellent casts to the pilings - we worked them thoroughly, then moved on along some exposed oysters teeming
with bait, but had no real bites. We made the run back to the mouth of Bell River and fished some more exposed oysters banks with the jigs and shrimp. We weren't there long when we had a strange bite, not much, then BOOM! Big Fish On! Olin was on the rod and played the big fish masterfully. It made some long, deep runs, but Olin kept the pressure on. The fish went 'round and 'round the boat and after a good battle we landed a big 29.5" oversized Redfish - big enough to slide Olin into 2nd place in the Anglers Mark 2017 Bragging Rights Tournament-Redfish Category (scroll down the right side of this report for standings). Now that's a nice fish! We went back to the jigs and shortly after that Olin had another hookup. Not quite as big, but big! He worked it to the boat and landed a 19" fat Seatrout. Our next stop was around at Tiger Island. The conditions were absolutely perfect. The sun wasn't up over the trees, the tide was low and just creeping in, and Olin was making pinpoint casts to the pockets. And no fish. I couldn't believe it. So we ran around and up into the Jolley, fished a couple of oyster banks with float rigs then the jigs - had no bites, then continued on around to make a pit stop at the MOA. And wouldn't you know it. Boom, Trout. Boom, Trout. Boom, Trout. We had a good handful of Trout then it shut down completely. Our final stop was at some docks on Bell River and I think it was first cast when Olin hooked another Trout (All fish were released today). We found a couple of more out deep then called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.